High praise for former chairman

The newly-appointed Chairman of the District of the Derbyshire Dales has paid tribute to his predecessor, former Bakewell councillor Carol Walker.

Ms Walker, whose civic year ended at Derbyshire Dales District Council’s annual meeting last week, recently stood down as a ward councillor for Bakewell.

Succeeding her in the civic role will be councillor Albert Catt, who praised his predecessor’s “years of dedicated service and hard work”.

Cllr Catt said: “There is hardly a committee or workshop she has not served on and left her mark.”

He added: “This is a council of which anybody would be proud to be an ambassador. This is a council where members respect each other’s point of view and the right to express it. From whichever side of the political spectrum we come, members work together to achieve the very best they can for all the people of Derbyshire Dales.”

Councillor Catt’s deputy will be Ashbourne councillor Tom Donnelly.

The annual meeting also agreed the creation of a new committee structure. The number of policy committees has been reduced from three to two and two area planning committees have been combined into a single committee that will meet alternately every four weeks, in Ashbourne and Matlock.

Councillor Jacquie Stevens was appointed chairman of the new Governance & Resources policy committee, and Councillor Jo Wild was appointed chairman of the new Community & Environment policy committee. The Planning Committee will be chaired by Councillor Garry Purdy.

Other appointments on the new-look authority include Councillor Sir Richard Fitzherbert as council chairman, with Councillor Andrew Shirley as his deputy.